'Sole Food

'Sole Food: Volume 2, Issue 21: The 'Thank God for Majesco' issue.

Just to show that he can be nice, Raymond kisses the ground and thanks the heavens for Majesco.

You know, it has become really popular to bash big publishers. To be fair, some of them just make it so easy. Being successful -- especially at the expense of smaller companies -- makes you a prime target for criticism. Now, I'm not claiming to be completely innocent; I keep my views on a publisher out of any reviews/previews I write, but I'm quite opinionated when I'm chatting with other writers, telling my favorite PR people how dreadful their lives are for having to rep such crap, and starting immature threads in the forums. I'm going to use this edition of 'Sole Food to show that I'm just as capable of appreciating publishers as I am making silly nicknames for them.

In past columns, I've written about Microsoft's unfortunate decisions to drop Psychonauts and Phantom Dust from its first-party lineup. The former is one of the most imaginative games I've seen in years. Its trippy story, visuals, and game mechanics had me hooked from the moment I laid eyes on it. The latter is a really cool amalgam of visceral third-person action and cerebral collectible-card game sensibilities. I'm into it, while GameSpy's one-man camera-crew, Ryan O'Donnell, is totally down with it. Both titles do things that are different from the norm and I was so psyched that Microsoft was bold enough to take a chance on them. When Microsoft dumped them harder than I was dumped by my Korean girlfriend as her date for the senior prom, my heart dropped.

So what's a heartbroken gamer to do? I tried praying for a publisher to pick these games up. I tried forcing mental commands to get these games whenever I bumped into an important executive. I even tried making a Shane Kim voodoo doll that would magically get him to reverse Microsoft's decisions and welcome these games back with open arms (think Journey). None of these things worked and I was left heartbroken.

Psychonauts

Then, like an angel rescuing me during my darkest hour, it came. Majesco announced that it would rescue Psychonauts from digital purgatory and would publish the game. The announcement surprised me, but I was too happy to think about it for too long. After all, Majesco had restored my faith that some publishers are willing to back creative games that try something different and can potentially further the industry, but are difficult to market.

With one announcement, Majesco went from a publisher that was just doing its thing to a publisher that was doing something cool. The company is trying to boost its stature and expand its scope by continuing to do the lucrative things it's been doing over the last few years, but also pushing interesting games like Advent Rising and The Darkness. Adding Psychonauts to the mix gave Majesco all sorts of street cred.